IBM’s Blockchain “Batavia” Successfully Started Making Transactions

The partnership between IBM with several international banks to develop a Blockchain Trade finance is already bearing fruits. The proposed platform called Batavia has already resulted in the platforms first plot transactions. IBM formed a partnership with several banks including the United Bank of Switzerland, Commerzbank, Erste Group, CaixaBank and the Bank of Montreal have been working on the initiative to better their banking services.

Batavia operates by tracking all the events in Supply chain while every important event can lead to the execution of Smart contracts which close trade agreements. The first transactions to be done using the platform included sending cars from Germany to Spain and also sending furniture products from Australia to Spain.

According to Niko Giesber from Commerzbank: “the successful joint live transactions have demonstrated the potential of this platform. The transactions are automatically triggered by the transport data which comes from an important basis of risk management and also financial instruments, therefore, adding value to the supply chain.”Giesber also noted that Batavia will not be locked only to the partnered institutions but will add more partnerships with different institutions as they continue to try to build a product ready solution.

The exploration of blockchain by different Banks is becoming very popular in the banking sector. India’s ICICI already have their own blockchain platform. Last week the Bank put more than 250 corporate customers on the platform which is designed to suit all purposes including both domestic and international trade transactions.

Blockchain platforms are expected to make transactions more transparent, secure and faster between organizations. More to that they will also reduce supply chain cost, especially in the paperwork and time. Samsung is already developing a similar system which is geared towards monitoring Samsung’s supply chain as well as easing communication between the company and clients.